“Next come the irreversible rails, laying out the countryside, unfolding, unfolding, unfolding Russia, pressing on between latitudes 50° N and 60° N, and the guys who grow sticky in the wagons, scalps pale beneath the tonsure, temples glistening with sweat, and among them Aliocha, twenty years old, his build strong but his body caught in contrary impulses—torso skewed forward while the shoulders are thrust back, choleric, complexion like mortar, black eyes. He’s posted at the far end of the train, at the back of the last wagon in a compartment slathered in thick paint, a cell, pierced by three openings, that the smokers have seized immediately.”
The story is filled with references to those rails and even the latitudinal and longitudinal degrees are integral. This novel does not just take place aboard the famous Trans-Siberian Express, it is to a degree about the very concept of a train ride. The Trans-Siberian Express travels more than halfway across the width of Russia and that is a substantial piece of land. A lot can happen on such a long journey, and it is perhaps intended irony that this novel is quite slim. This passage is representative of the many ways in which the journey itself is incorporated into the telling of the narrative. The triple repetition of “unfolding” conveys the length of the journey while also, subliminally at least, replicating the repetitious sound of a train’s wheels. The specific notification that Aliocha’s body is “caught in contrary impulses” also works as a commentary on the ironic contrariness of writing such a short novel about such a long train ride. Aliocha is one of the story’s two protagonists and the extended physical description also carries a note of irony since he remains a rather mysterious figure on the inside throughout the tale.
“The first corridor is empty, everyone's fast asleep—it’s outside that things are happening , the dawn raising up the forest at full tilt, lifting each trunk to vertical, the bluish underbrush perforated by rays charged with a carnal light, the taiga like a magnetic cloth, modulated to infinity by the new thickness of air.”
Both these passages are examples of the sentence construction that permeates throughout the book. The long, complex, often intertwining sentences replicate the experience of the Trans-Siberian Express on its long winding journey across Russia. This quote is another example of the persistence of subtle irony that characterizes the literary mood. The story takes place inside a train, remember, but here the narrator is insistent that it is off the train where action is taking place. The dense description of that outdoors which is passing by quickly and soon will be gone and forgotten is a necessity to such a story. What takes place inside the train, by contrast, is often painted with less descriptive imagery. The narrator is calling attention to the juxtaposition between the vivacity of the world outside the confined interior. Though most passengers may be asleep, they are actually in more extreme motion than most of the people outside those confines.
“Aliocha holds his breath now, he’s no beggar, no victim, he’s just like her, he’s running away, that’s all. The woman looks the boy straight in the eye—a clearing opens, very green, in the dirty dawn—and bites her lip. Follow me.”
This moment is what the narrator meant by asserting that it is outside where things are happening. The plot of this book has all the ingredients of a tense spy thriller or an erotic romance. Two characters stuck inside a train together over such a long journey would seem to naturally spin a tale of adventure and action. It turns out that this is just a story about a young Russian man and an older French woman who are running away for very different reasons and who they want to meet. They do not share any common language and therefore most of the communication between them is non-verbal or conveyed through implication. Such as her unspoken gesture in this scene which sends him the message to follow her. Without direct communication, all those expectations of an action-filled or passion-filled adventure aboard a train evaporate. This is also a means by which the story replicates an epic train journey. A train’s purpose is to transport from point A to point B. This unlikely relationship between the two protagonists exists primarily to get them to where they need to go.
